Bali - Nusa Penida

Going to Nusa Penida, the large hilly island 1.5hr ferry ride southeast of Bali, is up there as one of my trip highlights. This is because Nusa Penida is one of the best places in the world to see manta rays, a creature I have always dreamt of seeing up close.

Originally we’d hoped to explore the island’s dramatic cliff coastline by bike. However when we looked closer at the route and the profile in RideWithGPS (the planning platform we use) and saw huge elevations with steep climbs we rapidly decided against this. Instead we spent our 2D3N on the island exploring with a hired driver, and on our second day snorkelling with Bali Aqua.

Much quieter than Bali we enjoyed cycling from the ferry along the seafront to our beautiful hotel. Nusa Penida is less developed, but this is rapidly changing. Instagram and Tik Tok are having a significant impact, in particular that ‘one shot’ of Kelingking Beach - the T-Rex-shaped cliff (google it: it’s stunning) - driving a tourism boom. This singular view now defines the island’s identity online.

Whilst driving to sites along the coast - we visited popular Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach - we saw (and were a part of) the overcrowding and infrastructure strain caused by this one viral image. Thousands of tourists now depart from Bali every morning to enjoy a whistle-stop package tour of Nusa Penida, returning by fast ferry late afternoon.

Although we wanted to see the beautiful scenery along this coast we didn’t feel the need to collect the T-Rex image and avoided the Kelingking queues, opting instead to stop at Paluang Cliff (a bit further along). From this beautiful viewpoint we were amazed to see an elevator being installed into the cliffside above Kelingking. An 180m glass lift backed by a Chinese investor, it will enable people to easily reach the beach below the famous cliffs. For me this project erodes the very essence of what draws people here in the first place (!), but we also learnt the next day from our Bali Aqua guide, it also increases the likelihood of unwitting tourists swimming at the beach and getting swept away by dangerous currents. A French tourist died at the beach at the end of October after entering the water here, despite several warnings against doing so.

Happily construction on the lift has recently been suspended in reaction to public outrage. Bali’s Provincial Government has said the lift is potentially contravening spatial planning rules. I wonder what will happen to the unfinished lift if the project is abandoned…?

Leaving the queues behind, our driver - friendly Wahyu from Lombok - drove us further southeast along the coast to Guyangan waterfall.

Wahyu told us he was the only child in his family of three other siblings still not married. Getting married costs a lot of money and he and his girlfriend - who is currently working as a cleaner in a hospital in Japan on a three year contract - are saving to work on a cruise ship as they are keen to travel. But to get a job on a cruise ship they need to first pay an agent the equivalent of $4000 (four THOUSAND American dollars!). Working as a driver in Nusa Penida pays more than working in Lombok. And Wahyu had amazing driving skills! The drive quickly confirmed our decision not to cycle as the right one. The roads are narrow, in poor condition, often very very steep, and chock-full of cars ferrying tourists around: leaving little room for bicycles. Exploring the island is challenging, and we were relieved to be in Wahyu’s skilled hands.

Guyangan waterfall is a bit of a misnomer. There is a waterfall - it is small and at the bottom of a large cliff face - but it is not what we came to see. Neither is the small shrine that accompanies the waterfall. Reaching the waterfall involves climbing down hundreds of steps on a bright blue stairway, and by doing this you experience the most amazing views of Nusa Penida’s dramatic cliffs. And not being on the tourist trail we had the place all to ourselves - only having to pause once on the cliff face (at a thankfully wider spot) to let an Indonesian family pass us on their way back up. All smartly dressed in traditional clothes they had made a pilgrimage together to the shrine.

The stairs were a bit of an adventure, hanging from the cliff face with big gaps between each rung. Navigating these was made all the harder by having to wear a sarong - to show respect as the shrine is sacred. Thankfully the metal staircase felt pretty solid. That is until the final blue stairs, now made of wood and hanging directly over the ocean, with waves crashing on the rocks below. These last steps looked very dubious and we decided not to proceed, happy to have seen the beautiful views we’d seen so far.

The following morning my heart was all fluttery and excited. We skipper down from our hotel to Bali Aqua’s base by the beach. Joining 8 others - all scuba divers - we sped across the water to Manta Point. The divers tipped over the boat’s edge, plunging backwards one by one into the water. The water was perfect, cooler here due to colder currents, and I was glad of my research finding Bali Aqua. A responsible outfit, they only take small groups and give a talk to all they take out about how to behave in the water with the manta rays. They also provide full length wetsuits, fins, good masks and snorkels. Our guide, Italian Lisa, took such good care of us and I warmed to her immediately. This was her last trip out with the mantas as she was finishing her summer scuba season to go work in the skiing resorts of the Swiss Alps over winter. This is the summer/winter pattern her and her husband live to - scuba, ski, scuba, ski…

Despite my excitement and long anticipation for this moment, I wasn’t prepared at all for how seeing manta rays would affect me. Their size astonishes (and would have taken my breath away if I wasn’t already struggling to breathe through a snorkel). And these Reef Manta Rays are the smaller of the two species! Their elegant beauty as they gracefully fly through the water, their movements languidly balletic, is beyond captivating and impossible to do descriptive justice. I was utterly spellbound.

Sadly the spell was often broken by getting another’s flipper in my face, or elbow jabbed into my side. Manta Point is a cleaning station - basically a manta ray spa, where resident smaller fish clean their clients of parasites and dead skin. The popularity of this spa with the mantas means it is almost guaranteed to see them here, and many boats capitalise on this = hoards of tourists. Many tourists are clearly not briefed in the clear guidelines for passive interaction with manta rays as we saw many free diving down to get a selfie shot, getting in the manta’s way. The number of divers also creates a wall of bubble streams.

The hour we had in the water meant we saw boat groups come and go and gave us time to find space. I tried to shut out the human element as I floated on the surface, enthralled in watching the mantas circle round and round, often flying beneath me in slow magical formation. One of the most intelligent fish in the sea, they have one of the highest brain-to-body ratio of all fish, and have been shown to have physiological and cognitive self-awareness (few species have ever passed this test). You could sense this intelligence in them, and I wonder what these wise gentle giants thought of us all, if they deemed to think of us at all.

From Manta Point we stopped in the calm waters of Crystal Bay to snorkel above the coral reefs and watch the huge number and variety of tropical fish play out their busy lives below us. Just as we were making our way back to the boat, we were lucky enough to see a green turtle munching away at the coral, surprisingly camouflaged.

What a morning! A very special hour of my life I will never forget and am so grateful to have shared space in the manta rays’ presence.Læs mere